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The annual Watertown Middle School musical takes the stage this week. “The Wizard of Oz” will be performed for the public on Thursday, March 1, and Friday, March 2, at 7 p .m.

Tickets are $5 for students/children/seniors and $10 for adults. Tickets will be available at the door. The evening shows are appropriate for children 5 and up.

The students have been working on the set since September, and the cast auditioned in the the first week of November.

According to WMS theater director Abby Casey, last year’s show, “The Sound of Music” had 50 students in the cast and 10 on the crew. The year before 90 students were involved with “The Lion King,” including some 70 on stage.

“I try to add a new layer [for the students] every year,” said Casey, whose first WMS musical was “Once On This Island” in 2009. “In 2009, I had four boxes on the stage, almost no set pieces. We borrowed as many costume pieces as we could, and luckily people said, ‘Oh I’ll let just you keep it.’ Last year we added a live orchestra, as we stopped using the karaoke tracks.”

Over the years, she also given more and more responsibility to the students, including building the sets and and making the costumes.

“A lot of what you are going to see [in “Wizard of Oz”] is coming right from a student’s head,” she said.

Watertown Middle School eighth-grader Malcolm MacDonald is the lighting director for “The Wizard of Oz,” which will be performed March 1 and March 2, 2018.

Eighth-grader Malcolm MacDonald is one of 12 WMS students who worked on the crew, doing everything from building the sets to making costume. For “Wizard of Oz,” Malcolm is working as the lighting director.

Q: What do you like most about being on the crew?

A: “”What I like best is probably how much work goes into it. Like building it, rehearsing it. It has all the fun you can get. There’s always something happening, and you feel like you’re helping build something. And when you see the what happens finally, it’s just really cool.”

Q: Do you like being backstage or in the booth better?

A: Probably in the booth. It’s much quieter, and there’s a lot less room to mess up. You only have one thing to stick to.

Q: Have you ever gotten anxiety during the plays? If yess, then when?

A: To be honest, no. There’s not 50 people running around. You don’t have to worry about someone else doing the same exact job as you. Because I only have one job, and that’s to control the lights. Nobody else controls the lights except me.

Q: What’s the hardest part about your job?

A: Probably cues. Especially during the play when all the lights are off, it’s hard to see backstage, so you have to make sure you get the lights on the stage on so they can see. But you have to make sure the crowd ain’t seeing lights at the same time.